Aditya Dhar and Madhu C Narayanan have won the Gollapudi Srinivas National Award for 2019. For the first time since the award’s inception, it’s a tie.

Spoilers ahead…

The Gollapudi Srinivas National Award is unique. It was instituted in 1998, in memory of the young filmmaker whose name the award carries. He passed away in an accident in 1992, during the shoot of his first feature. The award, therefore, is presented to a director who made his debut the previous year. The list of winners extends from Leslie Carvalho (the first recipient, in 1997, for The Outhouse) to Shyama Prasad (Agnisakshi, 1998) to Hemanth Rao (Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu, 2016), Konkona Sen Sharma (A Death in the Gunj, 2017) and C Prem Kumar (96, 2018). The most high-profile ‘first-timer’ is Aamir Khan, who won, in 2007, for Taare Zameen Par.

BR, you always nail it with your final punch lines. Can’t say better than this. Impressed.

“All I can say is that it was a very tough choice, and I am glad both directors won, for films that take place in two extremes of the country. This year’s Gollapudi Srinivas National Award is a reminder that art unites us all. ”

Kumbalangi Nights impressed me so much that I kept referring the movie to everyone for multiple weeks over lunch table and coffee breaks at work.

Actually, I think it was ‘so many words’ to explain why the jury couldn’t agree on a movie.

I liked ‘seeing’ the thought process behind such a decision. I’ve always wondered about it – at the National Awards, for instance. It’s easy enough to criticise the eventual winners, but I always wondered how one arrives at a decision to choose just one film (or actor or singer or…) as the ‘best’ in that particular year. Thanks for elucidating at least a little but of the process.

Why was Madhu C Narayanan even awarded? Sounds like he was plain lucky to be picked by a good team of writer, technicians & actors while poor Aditya Dhar had to do everything on his own to make his grand vision of silhouettes fighting in orange light.